Engineering the visible light absorption of one-dimensional photonic crystals based on multilayers of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films

One-dimensional (1D) photonic crystals (PCs) are difficult to construct since there are several variations with different refractive indices. Herein we propose a fast and reliable method for constructing 1D PCs consisting of spin-coating multilayers of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films without the use of any alternating periodic structure. By adjusting the spin-coating speed (SCS) and spin-acceleration time (SAT) during the deposition, it is convincingly proved here that visible light absorption in PCs can be easily engineered. The SCS and SAT are capable of readily controlling and modifying the stop-band position. With varying SAT, the stop-band position is moved from blue to red. The stop-band position of the PCs presented may be precisely adjusted with the proper SCS and SAT values, demonstrating a considerable potential to replace the current methods. Finally, the proposed PCs might be considered for some applications such as sensors, optical filters, and waveguides. •1D photonic crystals are obtained with merely multilayers of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films deposited via a sol-gel spin-coating process for the first time in the literature.•Visible light absorption in the PCs can be facilely engineered by tailoring the spin-coating speed and spin-acceleration time during the deposition.•The stop-band position can be easily controlled and manipulated by the spin-coating speed and spin-acceleration time.